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Monday, January 7, 2013

First Day in Japan! (1/5/12)

We were all up and ready to start our day at 6:30am! A couple hours
early for all of us on a Saturday but we were rested and feeling ambitious! The
morning was spent unpacking all our luggage and making our apartment feel like
home! We have a two bedroom apartment this year and though it felt a little tight when
we had luggage laying around, it seemed to get a bigger once our stuff
started getting put away. We loved the space in our one bedroom last time. We believe the two bedroom is the same size square footage wise but just
utilized differently. We have a ton of built in storage, far more then we will
possibly need but it will help (hopefully) keep our place organized.

Pictures to come of our place fully set up and put together!

After getting moved in some and giving the little man a few naps we got
ourselves cleaned up to hit the town! It is great how familiar our surrounds are. The walk down to the train felt like we had just walked it the previous day rather than almost two years ago. Last time we had Suica cards for the trains but this year we bought Pasmo cards. As far as we know the difference is just the company.

Waiting for the train.

Gabriel studying a woman on the train.

Our first stop of course was the sushi-go-round. We've been talking about that this little place under the train station since leaving Japan and we were not disappointed. It was a little interesting getting in there with a baby and stroller since the quarters are pretty tight but we made it work.

The grilled Salmon, our favorite!

Excellent hand warmer in the cold weather too!

From there we hit the bakery to grab a treat for later and headed to base to begin the paperwork for my base pass and made sure to hit up the Boss Coffee vending machine, why don't we have hot drink vending machines in the States?! We didn't really want to spend our first day on base but we needed to get some things done, like grocery shopping. At the commissary since I am not on orders I am not allowed to shop with Christopher but rather sit on a bench near the checkout stands. At first I thought it was ridiculous but I have learned to understand and accept the reasoning. Sitting and waiting for Chris was my first introduction to the attention I Gabriel is going to receive while in Japan. This time around I wanted to be more intentional with getting to know locals and Gabriel is going to really help me with this! The Japanese love American babies, especially blonde and blue eyed! I wouldn't consider Gabriel a toe-head but the little fuzz he does have is light in comparison to Japanese babies and he sure does have some bright blue Swedish eyes! As we sat and waited for Chris, Gabriel was touched, played with, talked to, and had his picture taken. This might sound weird or perhaps a little scary but they are so sweet and gentle. I love seeing how happy our little one makes others. We had quite a bit of groceries, so much so that we needed to take a taxi. It was after 5pm and dark once we finally left the commissary and apparently off base taxis stop coming to the commissary at this time (even when called... don't get it). We had to then grab a base taxi to take us over to the off base taxis. In Japan, like the States, you do not need a car seat for an infant when using public transportation. This doesn't apply to the Naval base but fortunately the taxi drives carry car seats, however it seemed to be more for show and legality then safety since the driver hardly secured it and it did not fit Gabriel at all. It felt strange holding Gabriel in my arms in the off base taxi, Chris said it was his instinct to just want to squeeze him tight! Ended the night with Chris making some spaghetti and watching The Big Bang Theory.